The gods were smiling on me tonight

October 3rd 2013

Banjara Indian Cuisine
796 Bloor Street West
(west side of Christie Pits)

I have decided to travel to the other side of the world for some cuisine that I have never had before.  My tour guide tonight is my friend Anita.   She says that this is the place to go for great Indian food and she would know.  As she states many times, she is my only "brown" friend, so who better to be the expert.  She is not even from India, actually she is from Guyana, I think?  Anyway, she is a sweetheart and I trust her judgement for this type of food.  Otherwise I wouldn't know where to go.

It's on the other side of the Chrisite Pits,(west side) and the restaurant is full when we arrive and a line is already forming outside.

That is an awesome sign!

We are told it will be at least 30 minutes for a table.  We choose to wait. There is another restaurant attached to this one at the right side, (another Indian restaurant). Anita is telling me the other restaurant benefits from the overflow of traffic from Banjara with people not wanting to wait and just want food.  She has never been to the other restaurant, but she has been to Banjara and she highly recommends it.  Now remember Banjara is the restaurant  that is furthest back when you reach the lot.  Don't be fooled.

I am really excited and kinda of scared.  What if I don't like the food?  I will leave hungry? No I have to be positive.  I am very open to try different types of food, so I am ready and willing to try Indian.

We get our table and it really is only about a 15 minute wait.  It is a good table to the left up against the wall.

We are greeted right away, and I have great feelings about this place.

I ordered wine, I was happy.

I want to try a lot of things so I go to town, with my order.  I order a Meat Samosa to start which is pastry with minced chicken and as well, a Seekah Kabob which was lamb minced with green spices & lemon juice.

It was so good.  I knew I could come back on my own and order food and I would be OK.  Another great thing was that each item on their menu, had a description of what it was and the staff was very willing to explain what things were.  Actually at one point, our server told us that we had ordered too much food....but we ordered it anyway.

Next came, what we had come here for "BUTTER CHICKEN"...............Anita said it was to die for.
It is chicken  with tomato/onion with a creamy gravy.  Doesn't sound like much but it is SO GOOD!

With the Butter Chicken, I ordered garlic rice and NAAN  bread.........man!!!! was I taking doggie bags home tonight.....

I was very impressed.  It was just so delicious.

Dessert was interesting....no chocolate, but I ordered something called "GULAB JAMUN".  It is dried milk balls deep fried and dipped in sugar.  It was really good.

All in all it was a great meal.  Food was great.  Service was great.

I would highly recommend anyone who wanted Indian food to go here.  I loved it.  I will return!

2 smiley face today

Number 39 out of 50 restaurants